Israeli Cabinet unanimous in vote to pull troops from Lebanon

Published: Monday, March 06, 2000

JERUSALEM {AP} Israel's Cabinet voted unanimously Sunday to withdraw its troops from south Lebanon by July, committing itself to ending a bloody 18-year occupation and at the same time putting new pressure on Syria to reach a peace deal.

"It's an end to the tragedy," Prime Minister Ehud Barak told reporters. "We are bringing the boys home."

The Cabinet said Israel would try to withdraw through a peace agreement with Syria, but officials said the troops would leave by July in any case.

Barak has been promising a July withdrawal for the past year. The firm deadline now presses Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, either to return to suspended peace talks or to continue hostilities with its leverage impaired.

Israel says Syria uses the low-level war in Lebanon, and the resulting Israeli deaths, as a means of pressuring Israel to give back the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967.

A withdrawal from the zone Israel occupies in south Lebanon would take away that tool. But a unilateral withdrawal with no peace deal to assure an end to fighting would leave Israel's northern border vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israel's army chief warned that could cost more Israeli lives, including civilian casualties.

"In such a situation will the army be required to pay a heavier price than what we are paying today?" Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz asked. "That will be the $20,000 question."

Israeli troops have been in Lebanon since a 1982 invasion, followed by a three-year occupation of most of the country. In 1985, Israel withdrew the bulk of its troops, but kept hundreds of soldiers in a zone along the border equivalent to about a tenth of Lebanon's area to prevent cross-border raids by guerrillas.

The Cabinet did not explicitly mention a unilateral withdrawal, but left little doubt. "In case the conditions for a deployment by agreement are not met, the Cabinet will discuss, at the appropriate time, how to implement the decision" to withdraw, it said.

Barak's spokesman, Gadi Baltiansky, said that whatever the scenario, "the troops will be withdrawn by July." But he stressed that Israel still hopes for a peace accord.

Barak warned that Israel's response to any post-withdrawal attack would be harsh.

"I don't advise anyone to test our reaction when we are deployed on the international border and defending Israel from there," he said.

Whether or not the Cabinet decision was intended as a strategic move, Israel clearly hopes it will pressure Syria to resume talking to Israel.

Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Haim Ramon said the Cabinet's decision improves Israel's position in the negotiations.

Peace talks broke off last January over a Syrian demand that Israel agree in advance to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights. Israel refused, saying it first wanted to know the extent of peace and security arrangements Syria was prepared to offer.

The United States is mediating, but there are no direct contacts between Israel and Syria, Barak said Sunday, adding he didn't know when or if they would resume.

Just days after the talks broke down, guerrilla attacks on Israeli troops escalated. Seven Israeli soldiers died within three weeks, stepping up public pressure on Barak to bring the troops home.